US open: Dow Jones turns negative for the week

Wall Street stocks headed south at the start of trading on Friday as the financial sector continued to weigh on markets.

As of 1525 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.40% at 31,793.87, while the S&P 500 slipped 1.25% to 3,910.89 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.93% weaker at 11,608.18.

The Dow opened 452.68 points lower on Friday, wiping out gains recorded in the previous session and dragging the index into the red for the week.

Banks were still drawing the bulk of investor attention early on Friday after a number of big banks agreed to help embattled lender First Republic with $30.0bn in deposits as a show of faith in the banking system.

Credit Suisse was also in focus at the opening bell after the Swiss lender revealed it will borrow as much as CHF 50.0bn (£44.42bn) from the Swiss National Bank, leading market participants to mull over the plan for emergency liquidity.

On the macro front, Americans grew more pessimistic in early March amid persistently high prices, according to a preliminary reading of the University of Michigan‘s consumer confidence index, which fell from a reading of 67.0 for February to 63.4 for early March – its first decline for four months. Economists were expecting a flat month-on-month reading.

A gauge of inflation expectations one year ahead fell from 4.1% in February to 3.8%, well above the 2.3-3.0% range seen over the two years before the pandemic but the lowest reading since April 2021. In parallel, long-run inflation expectations slipped to 2.8% and outside the 2.9-3.1% range for only the second time in the last 20 months.

Elsewhere, US industrial output flatlined last month with weakness centred in the mining sector, according to the Department of Commerce, which said industrial production was unchanged in February in month-on-month terms. Softness last month centred on mining, where production declined by 0.6%, while in manufacturing it rose by 0.1% and that from Utilities was up by 0.5%. Total industrial output was down by 0.2% year-on-year and capacity utilisation was unchanged on the month at 78.0%.

Finally, the Conference Board‘s leading economic index fell 0.3% in February to 110.0, matching the decline recorded a month earlier. Over the six months ended February, the LEI dropped 3.6% – a steeper rate of decline than its 3.0% contraction over the previous six months.

In the corporate space, FedEx shares traded higher at the opening bell after the courier company posted third-quarter earnings that came in ahead of analysts’ expectations and raised its full-year guidance.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones – Risers

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $280.25 1.47%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $288.32 0.55%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $0.00 0.00%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $50.02 -0.20%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $137.91 -0.26%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $153.62 -0.27%
Visa Inc. (V) $216.45 -0.46%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $469.68 -0.50%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $154.94 -0.58%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $141.93 -0.67%